


Sanguis

by matelotage



Category: Preacher (TV)
Genre: Blood, Blood Drinking, Blood Loss, Medical Inaccuracies, Pre-OT3, a typical day in angelville, ambiguous beginning, ambiguous timeline, cassidy being the group's token edward cullen, character whump, jesse laying on the floor & bleeding all over it, stressed tulip, who messed jesse up ?? the world may never know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-26 02:44:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15654120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/matelotage/pseuds/matelotage
Summary: In all his one hundred and nineteen years, he'd never had to deal with this level of bullshit.





	Sanguis

He’d been lounging in a lawn chair for a half hour, wondering if it’d be worth it to get up and take a piss. It could probably wait. Maybe he’d grab a beer on the way back. 

And that’s when his phone rang. 

There was a strange urgency to Tulip’s voice. If Cassidy didn’t know any better, he’d think she was real worried about something. 

“Cass, Cass, I need you to get over here now. We need you.”

We? Was Jesse with her? 

She hurriedly listed off an address, murmuring something quietly to someone else. He clicked his tongue, confirming he’d be there as fast as he could.

Maybe they needed help stashing the bodies, not that they had to worry much about the law in Angelville catching up to them.

 

 

He wasn’t prepared for the sight that greeted him. Or the _smell._

The coppery scent of blood hit him like a mac truck as soon as he opened the door. This wouldn't normally sway him, all things considered. Something just felt _off,_ though. 

Tulip’s head turned towards the sound of him stepping through the door frame, hands still pressed tightly against a mass on the floor.

A Jesse shaped mass. 

Preacher man was sprawled along the floorboards, a steadily growing puddle of blood seeping out from underneath his body. His legs were splayed out at awkward angles, red trickling out from a slash across his neck. Frothy red and black sludge leaked out of his mouth, eyes half open. That was a little odd, but first things first:

Maybe he’d shown up too late. 

“Cassidy, you gotta do something.” 

Tulip’s voice brought him out of his stupor, the man finally make his way towards his friends. 

The lump on the floor made an aborted motion to move his head, but stilled again seconds later. “Easy, padre. Easy.” He crouched down beside the wounded, bony kneecaps hitting the pool of crimson fanned out around Jesse's head. “You’ve don’ and really fucked up this time, haven’t ya?” 

“Got most the bleeding stopped but this, this it’s---” She pointed up at his lips, more sludge seemingly appearing out of nowhere. “The fucking knife. She must've doused it with something. We don’t have the godamn time to figure out what it is or what kind of antidote we need. Figured getting the poison outta his system the old fashioned way was our best shot. ”

And then the realization hit. That's why she'd called him.

“Oh, hell. You want me to pull the fuckin’ Twilight schtick with ‘im? Tulip…”

“Do you have any better ideas?”

What else were they to do? If this stuff was really volatile, Tulip couldn’t very well risk ingesting it from trying to suck the poison out. The only safe means of doing so would be if a non-human did it.

A non-human that so happened to feed on blood. 

He muttered a quick ‘god fucking damnit’ before he lowered himself closer to the ground, bracing his hands on either side of the dark haired man’s head. "Don't ye worry now, padre. I ain't getting fresh with ya. Tulip's 'ere to protect yer virtue 'an all that." There was a bitter tang to the blood as he tentatively placed his mouth over the cut in his neck, a clear indicator that the weapon he'd been struck with had been soaked in something unsavory. Tulip hovered over the both of them, the slight tremor in her hands the only indication she was teeming with worry. 

Cassidy latched his teeth against the wound with all the care he could muster, such a juxtaposition to how these situations normally panned out. Typically, if he’d been this close to someone’s throat, he’d be in the process of tearing their jugular out. He’d never imagined being careful about pressing his teeth against someone’s neck, but here he was doing just that. 

The preacher squirmed just a bit beneath him, Tulip’s hand finding the man’s hair and carding a hand through it. “Shh, Jesse. Cass is gonna fix this.” 

He was going to _try_ to. 

He began to meticulously suck at the wound until the bitterness overpowered the taste of blood in his mouth, quickly turning to spit the acrid substance out onto the floor. 

It was a grueling process, the woman beside him almost statuesquely still while the body below him gave very little indication he was even still alive. It was almost a chore to suck at the wound, turn and spit, and repeat. But it was something he did so more than willingly. 

After an eternity, he was almost certain the poison was gone. The taste of fresh coppery blood was the only thing that had been hitting his tongue for the past minute and a half. 

And there was the hard part. 

Maybe he just wouldn’t stop. The body below him was half alive at best, he could just write it off as a lost cause. Golly, he’d really tried his best, but the poor pastor succumbed to the poison. Or maybe the blood loss. Real shame it’d be to waste a meal. 

But then Tulip turned to look at him, hope in her eyes at seeing the ugly murky black color was no longer sluicing out of the wound. Just blood. 

And Jesse, Jesse prone on the floor, chest quivering with the effort to keep breathing. 

He broke away from the man’s neck and scrambled backwards, furious with himself for even allowing such thoughts into his head.

But he’d stopped, hadn’t he? He’d _stopped._

“Yeah, ‘at should do it. I think I got all the shite out of him now.” He croaked out, wiping at the swath of blood smeared across his face with his shirt sleeve. 

She’d moved over to Jesse where Cassidy had been moments ago, bringing a finger to his neck to check for a pulse. Pretty thready, but still there. 

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been sitting there, knees drawn to his chest when Tulip snapped her fingers at him, waving him closer. “C’mere, he’s coming to.” 

There was still a concerning glaze over the man’s eyes as Cass crept closer to get a better look; but Jesse blinked up at him slowly, some recognition there. He flexed his fingers just a bit, moving his arm towards both his companions. Cassidy wasn’t sure if he was deliriously seeking out the affection or not, but he’d oblige anyway. He took the man’s hand and smoothed a thumb over the busted knuckles, just as Tulip settled down to lean against the vampire’s side, hand still carding through the reverend’s shock of black hair. 

Cassidy’s shoulders sagged as he heaved a sigh, glancing around at the pair that had taken residence all up in his personal space.

At least the both of them were still breathing. 

 

 

Silence had settled over everyone as they made their way down a dusty road in Tulip's chevelle. 

Cassidy lit a cigarette, blowing the smoke out the passenger side window as they passed a positively dilapidated old cow barn. The driver patted a hand against his knee, gratitude and warmth in her voice. “Thank you.”

In the backseat, Jesse shifted his head around on the makeshift pillow that was Tulip’s jacket, the scratchy blanket Cassidy had raced around the house to find sliding off his shoulders ever so slightly. He mumbled something unintelligible in his sleep before quieting again, vampire and human exchanging fond looks over the convalescent dozing just behind them. 

Yeah, everyone was still breathing.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm new to the fandom & this is unbeta'd pls be gentle lmao
> 
> also all the love to cassidy the bi vampire man. u go u funky little murder machine


End file.
